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by refulgentis 867 days ago
You'd be surprised how much 500K means if you're not Samsung or Apple. There's recent products you'd say were clear hits and sold an order of magnitude more than that, but in actuality, it was exactly 350K.
1 comments

It’s a great achievement by the company; I am not refuting that. It’s still a niche product no one but a few tech people heard off it or would buy it.
Microsoft only managed to sell 140k Xbox Ones in Japan. Just throwing a comparison.
So xbox one was a small niche in Japan.
No, you're still missing it.

500K is a _lot_.

Runaway success unless you're: A) Apple B) Samsung

The 350K product I'm referring to defined a whole category for years and is universally well-known in tech.

To be 100% clear, next time you see "500K sold", your decision tree is:

Is it Apple? If yes, can be disagreeable whether it is well-known / successful.

Is it Samsung? If yes, can be disagreeable about whether it is well-known / successful.

Still here? It's well-known and successful, you'll look silly if you choose to be disagreeable.

But I didn’t say 500k is not a lot or that it’s not successful; I say that it is a niche and it’s not immensely popular. It’s successful in its niche. Again, the comment I replied to used those terms and that’s just not true. I don’t care and wish them all the luck and selling 100m of these things, but if I have to think about how many zeros behind the comma to write the % of human owners, this is not a non niche or popular product. Knock on your neighbours door and ask what it is; they won’t know and they also would never ever buy one.